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Thursday, February 21, 2008

Carbon dioxide: Part 9

Biofuels Deemed a Greenhouse ThreatElisabeth Rosenthal

Almost all biofuels used today cause more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional fuels if the full emissions costs of producing these "green" fuels are taken into account, two studies being published Thursday have concluded.

The benefits of biofuels have come under increasing attack in recent months, as scientists took a closer look at the global environmental cost of their production. These latest studies, published in the prestigious journal Science, are likely to add to the controversy.

These studies for the first time take a detailed, comprehensive look at the emissions effects of the huge amount of natural land that is being converted to cropland globally to support biofuels development.

If the increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is a major cause of global warming, then biofuels are exacerbating the problem rather than being a solution as intended. In the rush to fix a perceived problem, do-gooders run to the government to get legislation mandating biodiesel use, for example. The cure-all ends up being worse than the supposed problem.

The law of unintended consequences is always at work, yet do-gooders think they are exempt from its inexorable effects. Last year, Rep. Jeremy Kalin (D-17B) and the Minnesota legislature passed an energy bill that will ultimately fall under this debilitating law. Gov. Pawlenty is leading the green charge which this article shows is not so green.

Irrespective of the carbon dioxide issue, something was seriously wrong in the thinking of those who thought it wise to destroy a food source and turn it into fuel. That thought should have given the "experts" pause to consider the fork in the road that they were taking. My own eighth-grade-educated-farming-aunts could have told them that. But people who are driven to solve problems that may not even exist do not think about the consequences of their actions. All of us end up paying dearly for their insistence on "helping" us by mucking it up.